


I want you to want me

by jswoon2



Category: Hockey RPF, Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), M/M, Oblivious, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-14 05:37:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16486856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jswoon2/pseuds/jswoon2
Summary: Justin’s crush on the hot TA isn’t going away any time soon it seems.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, just a few little things.
> 
> 1\. I don't know much about colleges in Pittsburgh. I tried to make it accurate by poking around their university's website but ultimately, fine details are based off my own university.  
> 2\. This story is meant to run somewhat in tandem with another that I'm currently writing. That one is unfinished (as is this one right now) but I want to keep that one unposted until it's 100% complete.  
> 3\. The rating is subject to change which is why right now it's NR. It's leaning on T, but could become M.  
> 4\. And because this story connects with another one in the same universe, some of the (older) members of the Pens are missing.
> 
> The title is taken from Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" (1977).
> 
> Only proofread, not beta'd. Comments and kudos are lovely!

**INTRO.**

“My TA’s actually take care of the regrading so you should probably take it up with them,” Professor Mears says, trying desperately to get away from the clump of students all waiting to ask him the same exact thing. “Jeff, was it? Conor and Olli should be able to help you.” Looking a bit guilty, Mears edges his way past Justin, using his bag as a shield. It leaves Justin speechless. “Please, if you have _any_ questions, feel free to ask Conor and Olli. Conor and Olli,” Mears emphasizes.

Usually, Justin would feel bad or worry about bothering a professor in general, but Mears has only brought the mob upon himself since they follow him to the exit anyway despite his announcement.

“It’s Justin, actually,” he finds himself saying to the empty spot his professor vacated.

“Don’t feel too bad,” Conor says. On his lap is the printout of the Powerpoint. “This is my second semester TA’ing for him and he still pronounces my last name wrong.”

“Oh,” Justin replies like a question, unable to say much else. It doesn’t exactly make things better that Professor Mears doesn’t remember how to pronounce his student’s names—much less remember them at all.

“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” Conor says reassuringly. Then, before things can get too awkward, he changes the subject. “Which assignment did you need looking at?”

“Well, uh, on the last chapter quiz I think one of the questions might have been marked wrong?” Justin says. Just for the occasion he left his laptop open and ready to show the professor.

Conor nods understandably. “Are you talking about the question about staphylococcus? We got so many emails about it over the weekend. Since Zach is sick, it’s just me and Olli that’s available to go in and change all the grades.”

“We’re working on it,” Olli chimes in.

Whereas Justin has to look down to meet Conor’s eyes, to fully drink in Olli, Justin has to look up slightly. This is the first time that Justin has really interacted with his TA’s up close and it’s an understatement to say that meeting Olli, at least, is doing something to his heartbeat. And his palms—gosh, why is he getting so sweaty all of a sudden—and his overall ability to speak. There’s just something about Olli that smells _good_. Like Justin could bury himself in it.

Justin realizes belatedly that he’s been staring wide eyed at Olli for a few beats too long with a watery mouth when the TA—an alpha, of course, because the universe likes to make things difficult on Justin—puts a hand on Justin’s arm. Platonically.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re doing great in the class,” Olli says encouragingly, mistaking Justin’s sudden panic over his realization that he’s got a hot TA for concern over his grade.

Justin has never been so grateful for an alpha reading things wrong.

“That’s great!” Justin says a bit too forcefully, his voice nearly cracking. He snaps his laptop shut and tries to shove it into his backpack fast. “I’ll see you Monday then.”

“See you Monday,” both TA’s echo back not quite in sync but close enough.

When Justin makes it outside the lecture hall, Professor Mears is still at the main entrance to the building with two students preventing his weekend from beginning.

 

**

 

Contrary to what most other men might believe, Justin _likes_ being an omega. Although he definitely could go without monthly heats and all the high school bullshit about how real men are only alphas. High school is two years behind him though and he’ll likely continue getting regular heats unless he gets pregnant (thank goodness there are pills to prevent that) or until he’s in his mid-forties.

He’s mostly ever had to really listen to the annoying rhetoric. In high school he was on suppressants which diluted his omega scent and being at 6’1” and almost 180 pounds, most of his classmates didn’t ever peg him to be an omega and he never bothered confirming or denying stupid rumors like that. The people who he wanted to know, knew.

Now that he’s in college, on the other hand, the suppressants have taken a backseat gradually. He’s been lowering his dosage for the past two years since every summer he starts back up again.

Armstrong says omegas are good to have on the team because of their nurturing scent. Justin never really thought about it that way. He’s always kind of listened to the way female omegas talk about the way alphas come onto them and it’s not exactly because they were ready to mate and settle down. Suppressants were a great way of dampening his scent and alleviating his heat conditions. Whatever his dose must be now is just enough for the team to feel some of its effects since Dumo demands in the politest way possible that they cuddle during the team meeting.

“I got an 80 on a syllabus quiz. A fucking _syllabus quiz_. I don’t wanna even think about how a real quiz in that class is gonna go. I’m gonna die,” Dumo laments, seeking for sympathy.

“You can’t die,” Justin says. Slightly, Dumo brightens. “If you die, I don’t have a d-pair anymore.”

“Oh, fuck you. I really thought you cared about me,” Dumo says, pretending to be insulted.

“Boys,” Coach Armstrong says from the front of the room. Quickly, he waves is hand in a slashing motion near his throat. “If you guys wanna talk, there’s time after we’re done here.”

Sheepishly, Justin slumps in his chair to make himself smaller. Dumo practically topples on top of him but manages to catch himself before he falls completely into Justin’s lap.

They stay quiet for the rest of the meeting largely due to Jake glaring at them over Armstrong’s shoulder.

“Man, he takes the C seriously,” Dumo says once they’ve been dismissed. Justin has moved past the meal plan but Dumo promised to spot him so they’re going to eat dinner while all the other guys are likely on their way home.

“Maybe you don’t take things seriously enough,” Justin counters, just to be an asshole about it. He pushes Dumo toward the bushes to let him know that he’s joking.

The alpha laughs though.

If they didn’t have hockey in common, Justin would be surprised at himself if he was ever such close friends with a guy like Dumo. The guy looks like he lives for his fraternity and gets so day drunk at tailgates that someone has to take him home because he looks like he’s going to be sick or just throw up on somebody. Turns out Dumo only really looks the part.

Except the drinking part. Dumo is kind of a champ. Justin doesn’t really get the appeal of American college students drinking until they pass out but maybe it’s because he’s been able to drink over the summers because Canada has a different drinking age. Or maybe it’s just a phase that passed over him.

Either way, hockey put them together and now they’re pretty much best friends.

The cashier in Market Central doesn’t bother asking Justin to pay to enter. She just lets them by because she’s seen them so often in the first two weeks of school.

Once they get their food, they find a table in the corner to sit. It’s late and being that it’s still early in the semester, it seems that most people are using their last bit of freedom to be anywhere but campus. Justin doesn’t really blame them.

The chicken sandwiches are good, though, so they’re missing out.

It looks backward to everybody else but Justin walks Dumo back to his dorm.

“I can drive you back,” Dumo offers.

Justin shakes his head. “Nah, that’s alright. I’ll take the bus.”

“Alright,” Dumo accepts quickly. He hesitates at the door for a moment. “I love you, bro,” he tells Justin earnestly.

“Love you too,” Justin replies with a laugh.

It becomes apparent that Justin didn’t do a good job on checking the time. He has to run to catch the bus when it almost leaves without him. The driver stops and looks at Justin unamused for being late. There’s one seat left in the back of the bus so Justin makes his way there, grimacing. He tries not to man spread but his legs are long so it’s hard for him to be between two people.

Justin tries to smile at the girl who removes her backpack so he can sit down but she’s busy texting on her phone. He doesn’t really mean to be nosy on purpose but it’s too easy for him to glance over and see it’s her complaining to her friend that someone held up the bus from leaving.

With little success Justin attempts to make himself smaller to not take up as much room. There are eyes on him that he can feel. Presumably because of his entrance. The curiosity makes him look up to see he was just imagining things.

He holds his backpack tighter to his chest and closes his feet around his duffel on the ground. As he starts to dig through his bag to find where he left his headphones he hears a laugh in the quiet bus. Eyes snapping to the final row in the bus, he sees Olli holding his phone up as he watches something that he finds funny. The alpha’s eyes are crinkled and he holds a hand up to his mouth to stifle the sound. Justin wishes he wouldn’t.

Absentmindedly, Justin licks his lips.

The bus starts to break hard, nearly sending Justin forward in his seat since he wasn’t paying attention. The girl next to him glares. He tries to smile at her charmingly, maybe laying it on thick. She doesn’t hold the eye contact very long so she can change her music.

Justin tries to keep himself in check for the remainder of the bus ride.

His stop is somewhere in the middle of the bus’s route so much of the students on board are gone when it’s his turn to get off. Justin lets people from the seats behind him cut in front of him since he’d rather wait than have to fight with someone. Although, it probably has more to do with the number of feet that kick away his duffel strap.

A hand enters Justin’s periphery when he thinks it’s safe to collect his bag finally without having to worry about tripping anyone accidentally.

“Thanks,” he says before looking.

Olli, one hand around the grab pole, stands there blocking off another kid from leaving.

Justin feels his face get hot and he laughs nervously as he picks up his bag quickly. He ends up putting only one backpack strap on and he holds the duffel to his chest instead. Olli probably meant nothing by it, but Justin could’ve almost sworn that the guy was alpha posturing. It just felt like Olli was making himself big. For Justin.

He wasn’t though. He was just being nice.

Hightailing it off the bus, Justin thanks the driver and tries to walk in the direction of his apartment without making it seem like he’s running away.

His heartbeat no longer feels like he’s the only defense on a PK in OT by the time he gets back to his apartment door. His roommates were assigned to him randomly when he moved in and he’s thankful that they’re decent. They’re pretty unimposing. He was surprised that the complex didn’t set him up in an all omega apartment since there’s a beta in Room C next to his room.

Nat is in the kitchen making a late dinner with her headphones in when Justin comes through the door. She doesn’t see him so he goes to his room quietly.

All of the stuff he threw on his bed, he shifts to his desk so he can lay down. He switches the TV on for background noise and cracks open his pharmacology textbook. Justin means to read at least the first half of the chapter reading assignment. He falls asleep instead.

 

**

 

Justin isn’t a cheater but he is an opportunist. It’s difficult to ignore the plethora of information a website like Quizlet provides. Without it, he would be in trouble since he only read the supplemental text Mears assigned.

He completely forgot about the chapter from the main textbook.

Which, professors that want to have two textbooks for their class should be disallowed. Someone vote Justin into the SGA. He has some ideas.

Even though it’s only the third week of class, Justin feels taken aback that there’s someone sitting in his seat. His unassigned lecture seat. Since he would rather sit closer to the professor than farther away, he goes down an extra two rows to sit where he knows nobody else usually sits.

He stays on his phone for ten minutes left before class is supposed to start.

Getting back into Farmville right as the semester started either was a really bad decision or a really great one. It’s definitely great timing that he runs out of water just as Mears comes power walking down the center aisle of the lecture hall.

“The school has so much money and they still can’t afford good parking lots,” Mears complains loudly but not with the same voice he uses to teach the lecture. “Who do I have to call to get a parking spot around here?” None of the students reply but a few give a pity laugh. Justin gives a small smile with a nod like he’s listening.

Class starts when Mears finally gets the Powerpoint up and working. Now that they’ve moved on from the basics of infections, Mears starts to go into pain assessment.

Justin does his best to pay attention until Dumo sends him a selfie with all the free stuff he’s amassed over the past few days. In return Justin sends him back a Snap of Mears talking with a sticker of an animal sleeping. He thinks nothing of keeping his phone out, progressively sending Dumo worse quality photos as he tries to not make it obvious he’s not paying attention. Not even when someone sits down next to him with only a little over twenty minutes of class left.

There’s apparently a cute puppy Justin is missing that Dumo makes sure to share. Justin types back a frowny emoji.

“Cute,” someone comments, leaning into Justin’s space.

He jumps, dropping his phone loudly onto his desk where it bounces off and falls onto the floor underneath the seat in front of him when he flails to catch it. “Uh,” Justin says, feeling caught.

Olli smiles, breathing a bit heavily. His cheeks are red and there’s some sweat along his hairline. “I won’t tell anyone,” he promises. “I was late so we’re even.” Playfully, he elbows Justin.

Justin nods wordlessly. He then looks down at his laptop for a moment, realizing he’s at least a dozen slides behind the rest of the class and his phone is still on the floor. Flipping through everything he’s missed, he uses his foot to move his phone closer. He doesn’t have to move his stuff to get it since Olli, who has nothing out but a notebook on his lap, leans down to get it.

Torn, Justin focuses on his computer screen so that he doesn’t get caught staring at how Olli’s shirt strains across his back when he bends over.

“Thanks,” he says when Olli hands Justin his phone back. “Again,” Justin laughs.

Olli quirks an eyebrow at first. Then he nods, smiling. “No problem.”

The rest of the class Justin feels self-conscious. Dumo keeps sending his Snaps of the cool things on campus and Justin ignores all of them. He wouldn’t be as serious if Olli wasn’t so damn close. Not to mention, they’re at the homestretch of this lecture so he might as well start paying attention now. It doesn’t help that Olli is taking notes even though, Justin assumes, he doesn’t have to.

“I think this is the best stopping point. Unless you guys want me to continue,” Mears says. The whole class moves for their bag. “That’s what I figured,” he says, nodding. “Alright, I’ll see you guys Wednesday.”

Olli isn’t particularly motivated to leave fast. Meanwhile, Justin could really use lunch and at this point, he thinks Dumo has probably eaten so many free snacks on campus that he won’t be hungry when they meet up.

“I fixed your quiz by the way,” Olli tells Justin, holding his backpack in one hand as he sits on the top of the chairs in the row in front of them. “Not that you needed the points. You seem to really know your stuff.”

Justin almost asks how but they have other weekly assignments. Olli must be grading them, too, since they’re still one TA down.

There must be a bug going around because one of Justin’s teammates got sick at the beginning of the semester too.

“Thanks,” Justin echos himself from earlier. It seems to be all he can get out around Olli. He wants to say something else so the alpha doesn’t think he’s monosyllabic but one of his classmates comes up to them wanting to talk.

An omega, Justin observes by her scent. She’s pretty and small and suddenly Olli is straightening his posture and puffing out his chest. Justin tries not to think about how that makes his heart sink. All he has is a little crush based off scent and looks. Pitt is huge. Olli isn’t the first person that Justin found knocked on his ass because he thought they were hot.

“I was wondering when you guys are gonna hold the exam review,” the girl asks.

“Well, Zar—Zach—he’s taking care of it. I’m sure once he’s got the room reservation, he’ll let us know and we’ll post it online,” Olli answers helpfully.

“Are you leading the review?” she continues. Justin sees her twirl her hair and he tilts his head. That does something to Olli’s scent. It’s still good because it’s Olli but whatever signals she’s giving him, he’s not responding to them well.

“Actually, Conor usually leads the reviews but me and Zach will be there too,” Olli replies.

The girl seems disappointed as she says, “Oh, alright. Thanks!”

“No problem,” Olli says politely.

The girl walks away and over to her friend. They talk, giving a glance quickly in Olli and Justin’s direction before leaving the room.

“You need anything?” Olli asks, realizing that Justin is still standing there with all his things still out on his tiny desk.

“No, uh, I’m good,” Justin stutters out. He starts to messily stuff his things into his bag.

Olli glances at Conor who’s waiting for him. “You think you’ll go to the review? There’ll be a limited number of seats for each session.”

“I haven’t decided. I’ll go if I need it, you know?” he says, standing now that everything is packed away.

“You probably won’t but an extra review never hurt anyone,” Olli says casually.

“I think about it,” Justin says because he can’t give Olli a hard no.

The alpha smells happy at that promise. It’s gone so fast Justin doesn’t have time to think about what it means.

 

**

 

At practice Jarry decides that if his defense isn’t going to play, he’s just going to play all the defense positions himself. In a flash he’s out of his crease to poke check the puck and crashing into Justin’s legs.

Justin tumbles right over Tristan.

For a moment he just lays on the ice, attempting to roll onto his stomach until Army runs over to hold Justin’s head still. There’s at least six heads peering over him to see how he’s doing. A small light is shone into both his eyes and someone keeps asking him questions.

“I’m okay,” he insists despite his vision feeling a bit blurry and the new ache along his back.

Carefully, someone removes his helmet and a towel is placed underneath his head instead. He tries to sit up but Armstrong pushes him back down with a palm against the center of his chest.

“Are you sure you can get up?” the coach asks.

“Yeah,” Justin says. There’s only one of each person looking back at him now which feels like a good sign.

Jake takes one of Justin’s arms and Dumo takes the other to put onto their shoulders to help him stand. For a few seconds Justin sees bright white in his eyes but he closes them tight until it goes away. When he opens them, Army looks concerned.

“We’re gonna have to test you for a concussion,” he tells Justin.

“Do we have to?” he asks as he’s led off the ice.

Armstrong skates behind him, keeping an extra hand on Justin’s back, just in case. “You ever have a concussion before?”

“Only once,” Justin admits.

The rec team he was once on wasn’t very omega friendly and neither were the players. He got a crosscheck head first into the boards that resulted in a season ending concussion. It sucked and even when he started to feel better, he was still sensitive to bright lights

“Even more of a reason to get you tested,” Army says.

Justin grumbles but it’s not an argument that he’s going to win.

 

**

 

His head hurts.

He thinks he looks like one of those high school burnouts who wear sunglasses in class to hide that they’re high. It hides nothing. Without the glasses, the lights are too much.

Justin groans, pushing his textbook away so he can put his forehead directly on the cool table. The glasses push awkwardly on his face and breathing isn’t made easy. There’s not enough for him to go home, take a nap, and make it back to campus for class. He wants to go home, though. Coach Armstrong has him benched and he can’t work out at the gym for too long before the headaches start. Napping is the best thing he can do right now.

Deciding that he can’t skip Mears’s class, Justin closes his textbook and takes off his glasses. At the very least, he can take a quick library nap and if he still doesn’t feel better, there’s an Advil in his backpack.

He sets an alarm on his phone for a half hour even though he knows he won’t be able to fall asleep for all thirty minutes. It’s easier to fall asleep than Justin anticipated. He used to be more worried about falling asleep on campus but since he uses his backpack as a pillow, Justin would be surprised if anyone would try to steal anything off him.

The alarm scares him when it goes off.

Justin sits up fast which makes his head throb but luckily not for long.

“Are you okay?” someone asks.

Justin expects it to be Dumo checking up on him only it’s Conor and Olli with Reeser from the hockey team. Rubbing his temples, Justin makes a noncommittal noise.

“I’ve been better,” he admits, answering Conor’s question. He’s not sure when they all got there but it was probably during his nap. They probably figured with all the other big tables taken, they would bother the person sleeping the least if they joined them.

“How long are you gonna be out?” Reeser asks.

Too long, Justin thinks. “Two to three weeks. Army wants to be cautious,” Justin sighs.

Confused, Conor looks between Justin and Zach. “You play hockey?” Olli asks Justin.

“Yeah,” Justin answers. It hurts his little but it clicks that Reeser is the Zach that’s been absent from class. He never really thought about it before and he never asked what Reeser’s class schedule was either. It just wasn’t something Justin gave much mind to. Still, he looks at Zach. “I thought you were in health sciences.”

Zach shakes his head slightly. “Emergency medicine, actually. I took Mears for an elective and since I could really use him for a recommendation, I’m kinda his TA now.”

Olli looks like he’s still processing shocking information, Conor is packing up his things because it’s almost time to head to class, and Zach is sniffling loudly. Zach crinkles his nose and buries his hand into his back of Chex Mix. Catching Justin looking, he holds the bag out.

“Want some?” he offers.

Justin makes a similar face. “No, thanks. You’re gross, dude. I thought you weren’t sick anymore.”

“Am not!” Reeser insists. “I have allergies.”

“Keep them away from me. I have enough problems,” Justin requests.

Worse case scenario, if listening to Mears makes his head hurt so badly he can just leave class early and try to get any test questions he might miss from Zach. He might not be allowed to but it’s always worth a try.

“You coming?” Zach asks, regaining Justin’s attention. The three of them have gathered their things in one form or another and look ready to go to class.

Justin grabs his sunglasses and puts them back on. It’s not on purpose but where they’re standing, it’s like the light is shining directly into his eyes. He wants to automatically say, yes he’s coming but the prospect of class feels unpleasant.

“Your head still killing you?” Reeser asks. “He got a concussion,” he fills in Olli and Conor.

“It’s not too bad. Just some types of lighting really hurts. I can’t really read for too long either otherwise I get a headache,” Justin explains. “It’s only a mild concussion though. I only feel like shit because this isn’t my first one.”

“Maybe you should skip out on class today,” Olli suggests. Zach and Conor look at him, surprised. “We can find someone to get you the notes.”

“We can,” Conor repeats like a question.

“Yeah, I mean, what kind of TA’s would we be if we didn’t help,” Olli says, shrugging, as if it’s nothing.

“That’s on you then,” Reeser says.

“That would be great, though,” Justin adds. “I’ll owe you.”

“See. This is why I’m everyone’s favorite,” Olli brags.

Conor rolls his eyes subtly. “Good to see that it hasn’t gone to your head.”

Olli laughs at the chirp and Justin feels oddly jealous that he wasn’t the one that caused it.

 

**

 

Even after he’s finally cleared to be on the ice without a non-contact jersey, Justin goes into heat.

Justin hates riding out his heats alone so he makes arrangements. Not that, until college, he’s had much experience in the department of heat sharing. He just knew that after he went through it once with a partner, doing it alone was no good anymore.

The school recommends a high class place downtown since the campus’s Health Services doesn’t take his insurance. It’s worth the money, too, with how thorough they are. Justin gets to look through a long catalog of alphas’ profiles and scent samples. He doesn’t feel too picky about scent. Most of the alphas smell more or less the same to him. So, he ends up picking the one that stands out the most.

Geno smells the most like the outdoors and there’s something about the lazy smile in his headshot that Justin finds endearing.

“You in school?” the alpha asks after they’ve introduced themselves.

“Yeah,” Justin answers carefully. Thankfully, a good portion of his personal information is confidential. He knows that Geno’s seen some of it—he kind of has to, to do his job properly.

Geno must not care about the vagueness because he smiles warmly. “Study hard?”

“I try,” Justin says a bit shyly.

“I’m take good care. Trust me,” Geno says. “First time always hardest.”

“That’s an understatement,” Justin jokes.

“I make good, though,” Geno says as a consolation.

The alpha isn’t fluffing his own feathers. He’s earnest in a way that Justin believes automatically. It helps that Geno delivers on his word, too.

Justin leaves the clinic, tired but well sated. Maybe it’s because his head just ended, but he likes the fact that he smells like he’s been claimed. Once Geno deems him alright to leave, Justin showers while doing his best not to scrub the scent off. He waits outside after since Dumo offered to pick him up in case he wasn’t able to drive.

There’s nothing wrong with him that he couldn’t. He just knew he would be tired still so a free ride didn’t seem to have any downsides.

Dumo wrinkles his nose when Justin gets in his car and closes the door. “Damn,” he says, sounding impressed. “You reek. I guess you had a good time.”

“As good as you can be when you’re horny for three days straight,” Justin says. He pulls the seatbelt across his chest and clicks it in. He thinks— _knows_ —that he’ll be seeing Geno for the foreseeable future so long as there’s not an actual alpha in Justin’s picture.

“Ten outta ten, would bang again?” Dumo asks maturely.

Justin laughs, reclining the seat back. His body is sore in the best kind of way and his head doesn’t hurt anymore. He’s living a good life now. “Eleven.”

Dumo whistles. “Dude. You think I should ask this guy for tips?”

“Awe,” Justin says teasingly. “I’m sure you’re at least a solid five.”

“ _Wow_. I do you a favor and you start roasting me. I’ll turn this car around!” Dumo jokes.

“I dare you,” Justin says because he knows Dumo won’t. Idly, he scrolls down the list of notifications he’s missed the past few days.

His farm is in desperate need of tending to. Waiting in Messenger are memes the team has been sending to each other while Justin had been incapacitated. They’re sexual, but not in a vulgar way. Oddly pleasant, they’re encouragement for Justin’s heat as if he hasn’t had one before.

Alphas, Justin thinks with an automatic roll of his eyes and a small exhale through his nose.

“What?” Dumo asks, glancing over while they sit at a red light.

“Nothing,” Justin replies.

Dumo looks unconvinced, yet he doesn’t pry.

At the very bottom, his text messages wait. There’s a few from his mom, wishing him luck and telling him that the check went through. A Remind from Army is unread but it doesn’t apply to Justin because it was a meeting he wasn’t able to go to. Then there’s three unread messages from an unknown sender with an area code Justin isn’t familiar with at all.

 **+1(519)281-8841** (9:40AM): _hey, jackie is taking notes for you. what’s your email?_  
**+1(519)281-8841** (11:22AM): _you missed class twice this week. your head okay?_  
**+1(519)281-8841** (11:24AM): _it’s olli btw_

The messages are from yesterday so Justin still has time to reply without being rude about not answering.

 _sorry. I had a busy couple days._ _  
_ _j.schultzy90@pitt.edu_

Justin doesn’t realize he’s smiling looking at the messages until Dumo tries leaning over into the passenger side to be nosy.

“Stop that,” Justin says, trying to push his friend away.

“Who’s that? Is it your _alpha_?” Dumo jokes, wiggling his eyebrows.

“First,” Justin says, pointing a finger at him, “never do that again. And second, no. It was just a heat thing. And the guy was, like, thirty.”

“Hey, older alphas are pretty hot,” Dumo says, shrugging.

“You’re an alpha,” Justin points out.

“That’s awfully secondary sexist of you. I appreciate the hottest of all genders,” Dumo says proudly.

Justin’s phone buzzes on his lap. He doesn’t plan on answering immediately. He wants to seem chill but it’s only his mom checking to see how he made out. He doesn’t keep her waiting.

 

**

 

Olli slides into the seat next to Justin followed by a male omega. Justin bristles at the company.

“Good to have you back,” Olli chokes out. Strangely, he breathes through his mouth. Justin tries not to make it obvious when he tilts his head down to try to sniff himself. He doesn’t think he smells bad. He’s showered recently, too, so he can’t smell like Geno still.

“Good to be back,” Justin replies.

The omega with Olli says nothing. He seems to be waiting for Olli.

Olli says, “Great to hear that,” and gets up after putting a hand on Justin’s knee. The omega leaves when Olli does and they sit together with Conor and Zach.

From afar, Justin tries not to let the jealousy linger at the sight of Olli guiding the omega into the aisle first. He breathes in deep and covers both his knees with his hands. He’s probably wrong but he thinks Olli’s hands were bigger.

 

**

 

Football isn’t exactly his taste but the guys from the team all plan on tailgating together so Justin ends up being sucked into it, too.

Justin considers chirping the boys about how embarrassing it is to be seen with them in their matching khakis and polos shotgunning beers like it’s water but then Zach shows up with Conor and Olli and Olli with some of the residents from his floor. Because Olli is an RA on top of being a TA. Because he’s a nurturing alpha who takes after freshman like he’s their kids and wants to go into pediatrics to teach kids there’s no reason to be afraid of doctors.

They text now, which is how Justin knows.

They never really talk about it in class. It just becomes a _thing_. Justin doesn’t even think Olli’s told Conor or Zach that they have each other’s numbers. It doesn’t feel like it would be against the rules. Their conversations are rarely about class.

Justin’s crush on the hot TA isn’t going away any time soon it seems.

Olli, himself, isn’t very distracting. The things he does, does things to Justin. His heartbeat goes a little crazy and he finds himself wanting to say the right things around Olli more than he does with other people. He never cares about saying the right thing around Coach Army or Jake—although, Jake might be the captain but Jake doesn’t act like he’s above anyone else. Not to mention they’re essentially the same age.

Sometime during class one day, a student from the back of the room raises a discussion question with Mears. Justin glances back that way before focusing on what Mears plans to say in response. It’s not on purpose but his gaze just naturally goes to where Olli is. The alpha notices and smiles. His arm is laid across the back of the seat next to him where one of his omega followers is sitting. Justin almost sours. Then, cutely Olli gives a little wave.

Justin forgets what he was almost jealous about and the class moves on.

The freshmen Olli has with him today aren’t kids Justin thinks he’s seen before. One of them seems vaguely familiar, like he may have seen him when he’s gone to visit Dumo at the dorms. The kid looks at Justin blankly, like Justin is someone new to him so Justin concludes that he must have imagined it.

Conor brought more drinks and Reeser and Olli pooled their money together to buy the good brand name snacks.

Dumo and Jake’s parents came down early for the game so the dads have been manning the grill. Feeding hockey players is akin to feeding an army. The parents have it covered though.

Later, Justin will be embarrassed about it but for now, he’s knocking back drinks as fast as the other guys once everyone’s present. He stays away from Olli and his freshman horde. For as smart as Olli is in the sciences, he doesn’t seem to be picking up on the fact that there’s at least two of them trying to hit on him. Olli still responds to them warmly and tactile, though that might be the alcohol kicking in.

Since Justin is definitely not here for the football, he keeps drinking. Not enough to get sick, but by the time that they’re allowed to file into the stadium, Justin is drunk.

“How much have you had?” Olli asks, coming up behind Justin.

Justin sways against Olli slightly. He feels happy and maybe a bit giggly. There’s something about the red in Olli’s cheeks too that seems really cute. It would be a crime to not let him know how much Justin appreciates his rosy cheeks, so Justin tells Olli.

The effect is wonderful. Olli flushes even more.

“Maybe you should sit this one out,” Rusty suggests. Unlike the rest of the guys, Justin thinks Rusty has spent the majority of the afternoon eating than drinking.

“I’m only a little drunk,” Justin slurs slightly. He holds up his fingers close together as emphasis, going cross eyed when he tries to look at them.

“I think you should go home and drink some water,” Jake’s dad suggests.

Justin doesn’t want to be a party pooper and it’s the first time in a long while that he’s really been himself. He wants to stay. His stomach wants him to go.

“Uh,” Justin starts only to burp loudly. He feels something rise in his throat and he does _not_ like that. “Maybe I should go.”

“Did you drive?” Mr. Guentzel asks.

Justin nods, then shakes his head. “Was gonna sleep at Dumo’s.”

“I can drive you home,” Olli offers. “I only had one beer.”

Justin offers to take the bus home but no one in the group feels comfortable with the idea. It’s a combination of the omega thing and the drunk thing. If he was a little more sober he’d argue that nobody would mess with him, not even drunk but then Dumo calls Justin a drunk giraffe and it’s finalized that someone is going to have to miss the game.

Olli is the most adamant about taking him so Olli and one of his freshman start to steer him in the direction of the dorms.

Feeling boneless, Justin sprawls out in the back seat where Olli deposits him.

“Try not to throw up,” Olli requests. Justin hadn’t even really thought about that.

“Tryin’,” Justin promises.

Olli drives with his windows down and he tries to avoid going over the speed bumps too fast. Justin’s apartment is a surprisingly quick drive since most of the traffic is going into the school and not out.

The air blowing in his face sobers Justin a little.

“Ugh, I think I drank too much,” Justin complains as Olli walks him to the door.

“You think?” Olli chirps weakly.

“I feel my liver hating me right now,” Justin says. His pocket is giving him a hard time. He makes a triumphant noise when he finally fishes them out. “Sorry you had to leave early,” he apologizes as he starts to struggle putting the key in the lock. His depth perception is wobbly so it takes two tries to get it in.

“Don’t worry about it,” Olli replies.

Justin enters the apartment, lingering awkwardly in the doorway. He’s not sure if he should invite Olli in or not. Suddenly, Olli is close. It makes Justin think Olli _wants_ to come in.

“I’ll see you Monday,” Olli says, squashing that idea.

“Yeah,” Justin sighs. “See you Monday.”

Justin waits for Olli to walk away and Olli waits for Justin to close the door. They both laugh.

“Bye,” Justin says.

Olli scratches the back of his neck. “Bye,” he says. “I’m gonna go.” Olli points down the stairs to the parking lot. The alpha smiles and Justin feels sober.


	2. Chapter 2

**MIDTERM.**

Justin’s crush must be visible from outer space with the look Reeser is giving him.

“You can’t date Olli,” Reeser tells him. And, like, Justin knew that. Olli isn’t interested. “It wouldn’t be appropriate,” he adds. So, there’s that too. Justin knew that.

“I know that.” Justin skates into him on purpose, knocking their shoulders together as they kneel on the ice before practice starts.

Zach almost loses his balance. “After the semester ends, I don’t care what you do,” he amends. Justin thinks he’s trying to be supportive.

Justin laughs, empty. “That would imply I have a shot.” Since he’s so busy looking down at the ice (he doesn’t want to give away more than he already has), he misses the way Zach gives him a puzzled look.

Coach Armstrong skates out onto the ice with purpose. They have a game in two days and he hasn’t sounded too confident in his forwards.

“We’re not leaving until you guys learn how to win faceoffs,” Army announces.

Justin suppresses a groan. They’re going to be here for a while then.

 

**

 

When Justin lowers his suppressant dosage again, it’s like he’s barely taking any medicine. It’s more so his body doesn’t react negatively to not having it at all. It also means that his bimonthly heats are now every month and it sucks. He won’t really miss too many games but he will useless at practice for a few days a month. He’ll either be too tired or too sore to perform.

Geno listens to all of Justin’s complaining as they’re spooned together. Justin likes being the little spoon and it’s not the same when he and Dumo try. Eventually though, Justin’s incoherent heat ranting is put on pause when he feels the itch again.

Going in out of coherency isn’t fun. Although, Geno does a good job of keeping him happy.

All worn out, Justin still finds himself thinking about class. He’s missing it because of his heat but he’ll be back on Wednesday. His nose wrinkles and the picture of Olli sniffing Justin comes to mind. He’ll have to shower more thoroughly this time than he did last. Still, he wants to check.

“Do I smell bad to you?” he asks Geno.

Now probably isn’t the best time. His heats still aren’t bad enough where he has to be knotted for it dissipate. He feels a little bit bad for leaving Geno hanging, but the alpha finishes on his own with Justin’s permission.

“No,” Geno says quickly. Then, he leans over to smell Justin more clearly. Right now they probably smell much of the same. “No. Cookies and frosting,” he says thoughtfully. “You smell like cookies and frosting.”

“That’s a good thing, right?” Justin asks. To Olli it must be bad.

Geno frowns. “Only stupid alpha think differently.” Lazily, he cleans his hands off and rolls over so he’s holding Justin loosely with one arm.

“You smell really good too,” Justin says to be fair. “Not, like, mate good, but still really good. Like sweet jelly and fresh rain.”

Resting so close to Justin, Geno closes his eyes, making a noise to show his acknowledgement. He looks like he’s about to fall asleep. Justin should really take the time for a quick nap too but Geno is a good listener and this is really the only time he can talk about Olli without having to worry about it getting back to the other alpha.

Justin knows that he certainly can’t go to Reeser about his feelings. Dumo probably wouldn’t mind but it’s _Dumo_. He’s not exactly the first person who comes to mind when Justin needs relationship advice, or lack thereof.

Turns out that Geno isn’t much help either. He falls asleep as Justin talks to him.

Justin keeps talking anyway. Even if nobody is listening, it’s good to get it off his chest.

 

**

 

October starts the beginning of Justin’s motivation declining.

He shits the snooze button a bit more often and whatever notes he’s been taking for his classes are becoming shorter and shorter as time goes on. Justin probably spends more time trying to decipher his shorthand than he does actually studying his notes.

Olli laughs at him for it, but not to his face at least. His text messages have an overabundance of lol’s, to the point where Justin is more concerned at the lack of them than the presence of them.

“You know,” Justin says to Olli in person over lunch, “you guys would be the best TA’s I’ve ever had if you made a study guide for the midterm.”

“You know your midterm is online, right?” Olli asks.

Mouth half-full of Subway, Justin pauses. “What? Seriously?”

Olli puts on a face of disappointment, although he can’t help but smile a little. “I know you took the syllabus quiz. Did you forget already?”

“August feels like ages ago. Are you serious, though?” Justin leans forward in his chair eagerly. The class started off easy enough then somewhere between week five and six, things went from easy peasy to barely cruising. One less exam that he would have to take in person would almost be a godsend.

Pharmacology is killing him and pediatrics is about to give the final blow.

“Super serious,” Olli confirms. “It’s why we _don’t_ make a study guide. We know you’re gonna take it open book.”

“So, no hints?” Justin jokes.

“Sure,” Olli says, surprising Justin. “Look at chapters one through eight.”

Despite the lameness of the alpha’s joke, Justin laughs. He’s not sure what he expected but it wasn’t that. “Thanks,” Justin says sarcastically. “That helps a lot.”

“I’m really working for the title of #1 TA. I expect there’s a trophy involved,” Olli teases. Justin had been a little worried Olli would’ve thought Justin was asking Olli to help Justin cheat. He shouldn’t have been.

“I don’t have that kind of money,” Justin replies, honest and light.

Olli smiles, and unlike Justin, doesn’t try to talk with his mouth full.

Surprisingly, the alpha doesn’t finish all his food. After polishing off his sandwich, he pokes around his chips before glancing at Justin’s plate. Justin managed to eat his foot long, chips, and cookie in the one sitting.

“You want?” Olli asks, catching Justin eying his food.

It’s not that Justin was hoping Olli would offer but he’s also not the kind of guy to turn down free food.

“You’re not gonna finish?” Justin double checks although he’s already reaching out to steal Olli’s chips.

“I’m full,” Olli replies. Reaching down onto the ground he picks up his backpack. They probably should leave for class. Or at least, Olli should so he can get there early. He doesn’t seem eager to leave Justin though. Justin might find it flattering if he wasn’t eating still.

He just got off his heat. He can afford all the extra calories.

Leaving early turns into trying to get to class on time. Justin checks his watch to see they have ten minutes to get across campus.

“Shit,” Justin curses, “we’re gonna be late.”

“Let’s get going then,” Olli says.

It just occurs to Justin that Olli has been ready the entire time. He doesn’t say anything about it despite feeling bad.

They’re not the only ones late to class though.

Mears, while still there before Olli and Justin get there, is just setting up the Powerpoint when they get through the door. Justin half expects that this is where he and Olli will part ways but Olli sits with him instead of going to sit with Zach and Conor.

Looking over his shoulder, Reeser catches them sitting together. He makes eye contact with Justin and turns back around.

Justin feels his phone buzz in his pocket but he doesn’t have the room to take his phone out of his pocket as someone tries to get past them into the aisle.

The guy, an alpha—they’re all over medicine but they usually avoid pediatrics like the plague—chooses to sit directly next to Justin instead of sitting more toward the center of the aisle where all the seats are empty. There’s something unpleasant about him that Justin can’t put his finger on.

Justin feels unsettled. Sitting between two people, he tries to keep his knees to himself.

Twenty minutes later, Justin has a better idea on why. The alpha leans into Justin’s space and whispers, “What did he just say?”

Justin hadn’t been staring but he could see the alpha out of the corner of his eye. He knows that the guy hadn’t been paying attention at all. Facebook isn’t even close to what Mears had been talking about. Having the alpha address him suddenly has Justin frozen. He doesn’t like having this guy in his space.

Justin has fought guys for getting into his space before. They aren’t on the ice though. Justin can only try to lean into Olli until the arm of his chair won’t let him get any closer.

“I didn’t catch it,” Justin says, not quite lying. He was listening, he even took notes, but he finds himself forgetting it all now that he’s been put on the spot.

Gently, Olli knocks his knee against Justin’s. Justin quickly turns to look at him. Surprisingly on Olli’s screen is a soundless video of puppy trying to climb up a slide. It’s cute and Justin tries to keep his eyes on the screen.

“Cute,” Justin whispers. The video loops into another so Justin leans back into his chair only to feel an arm along the back of his chair.

“Sorry,” Olli apologizes. He doesn’t remove his arm, he only moves it slightly.

The other alpha is no longer paying attention to Justin, which he’s grateful for. The guy is back to texting away. Olli gives Justin a little shrug. He did something, Justin realizes, he’s just not entirely sure what. Justin looks back at Olli a second time but the alpha is refusing to look at him.

Something definitely just happened.

Speaking very animatedly, Mears manages to regain Justin’s attention. The fact that Justin has no clue what he’s talking about is enough for Justin to move on.

 

**

 

Dumo looks at Justin strangely, eyes narrowed.

“What?” Justin asks. They’ve been crammed together on Dumo’s tiny dorm bed while playing video games for at least an hour and this is the first time Dumo’s looked at him like this.

“Are you … dating?” Dumo phrases carefully.

“What?” Justin says again, dumbly.

Dumo takes an obvious whiff of Justin’s scent, putting his nose directly on Justin’s shoulder. “I thought I was imagining things but you definitely smell different.”

“Well I’m not,” Justin says defensively. “Seeing anyone. I’m not.”

“Are you cheating on me?” Dumo asks, scandalized.

Justin rolls his eyes fondly. “I would never.”

“Who is that?” Dumo pries. “Do I know him? Do I know _her_? You’d tell me if you started seeing someone, right?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Justin says. He tries smelling himself but he thinks he smells the same. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything changed in his scent. “Maybe it’s just one of the new guys.”

“I don’t know,” Dumo says unconvinced. He does appear to be considering the possibility.

Aside from the new guys on the team there hasn’t been many new people Justin has been hanging out with lately. There’s Olli but there isn’t any reason why he would smell like Olli. Thankfully, Dumo is quick to move the subject on.

“If you get shacked up before me, I wanna be the first to know,” Dumo says.

“Sure,” Justin says, dismissively. While Dumo is still distracted, Justin unpauses their game to knock Dumo’s character off the platform.

There are no friends in Smash Bros.

Dumo gasps dramatically. Justin probably deserved being pushed off the bed. Thankfully, Dumo doesn’t have it up that high.

 

**

 

The next home game they play Justin finds himself up against a beta with an attitude problem. Justin wants to fight him but Army won’t let him. On the bench, Army comes up behind him, puts both hands on his shoulders and gives him a talking to.

“A scout from the Penguins is here,” Army says, “you’re gonna wanna be on your best behavior.”

Justin grits his teeth.

He doesn’t need anyone to fight his battles for him, not even Jamie and Jamie is willing. Dumo got bumped up a line without Justin because Chad got a cold and Justin hasn’t been too on his game lately. That means, Justin has to play with Jamie now.

“I can, if you want me to,” Jamie offers once they’ve come off another shift. He’s panting like the rest of them but still not quite as hard because he’s, like, seven feet tall and barely twenty years old so his stride is massive.

Justin empties his water bottle sourly. “You can’t fight him if I can’t fight him.”

Jamie shrugs. Together they slide down the bench to make room for the last line coming off. As soon as the puck is cleared down the ice, Justin and Jamie hop over the wall for their next shift.

The alpha isn’t out there yet so Justin doesn’t need to be concerned with being roughed up more than usual. With even one little bump, half the alphas on the team come flying anyway, as if they forget that Justin is over six feet tall himself. He can take on whatever bonehead tries coming after him. Still, he gets what Army was talking about.

Sure, it’s outdated and a little insulting, but alphas will come if their omega is hurt. The only reason why Justin doesn’t take it too seriously is because if anyone so much looks at Tristan the wrong way, Jake, of all people, is the first one to go across the ice with his gloves off.

A beta forward from the other team backchecks Justin into the boards to steal the puck near the blue line. That Justin can handle. He barely budges until a big body barrels into him from the side. Then, Justin crumples onto the ice, dropping his stick to grasp his side. There’s no immediate whistle blown because the other team has possession.

Only when a scrum almost breaks out does the linesman blow the whistle finally. Off in the corner, Jamie has an alpha by the collar of his jersey, shaking him back and forth into the boards with angry words exchanged.

The only thing Justin hears is the sound of the trainer talking to him while feeling around his ribcage.

“Nothing broken,” the trainer says either to Justin or the ref, Justin isn’t sure.

Through his groan, Justin coughs. The air had just gotten knocked out of him.

Despite the crowd around him, they all let him get up on his own terms. Justin rolls onto his stomach to push himself up onto his hands and knees. If that alpha didn’t break his ribs, it certainly feels like it right now. In the morning there’s going to a big bruise, Justin can already feel the steady ache it left being checked there.

Justin uses the boards as support to help himself up. The movement causes him to groan.

All around him the players tap their sticks and the students in the building all bang on the glass. His side feels tight as he tries to stand up to full height. When he looks up Olli is there with Conor. They’re wearing Pitt gear with Reeser’s number made out of masking tape on their shoulders.

Conor, with his backwards baseball cap, looks fully immersed in the game. He’s banging on the glass excitedly, cheering Justin on meanwhile Olli looks less amused with his arms crossed over his chest.

Justin tries to break out a smile so they know he’s fine but it comes out more like a grimace.

“Let’s get you to the bench,” one of the linesman says, ushering Justin away.

Army checks up on him once Justin has sprayed half his water bottle on his face and isn’t completely hunched over anymore. They want to take him into the locker room but he doesn’t want to go.

“I’m fine,” Justin insists, taking deep breaths.

Army nods, then shifts over to Jamie. “Take care of it,” he tells him.

Maybe later when Justin’s side isn’t throbbing he’ll be jealous that Army gave Jamie the green light to fight. For now, he just wants to see #43 get his ass handed to him.

The refs must be expecting some kind of retaliation coming since after that, the calls are soft. They’re frustratingly concerned with nobody touching Justin which, with a scout present he probably shouldn’t, but he might play the body more than usual.

They take the win at home and Justin walks away with only two bruised ribs.

“We’re going out to celebrate,” Reeser tells Justin, leaning against his stall. “You wanna come?”

It still hurts to breathe a little bit so Justin has to take it slow sitting up after tying his shoes. “Where’re you going?”

“Applebees,” Reeser answers.

Justin laughs. “Sounds like a crazy time.”

“If you don’t have class tomorrow, feel free to take guys out somewhere else,” Reeser says.

Justin makes a face. “Alright,” he gives in. “At least I can get a beer still.”

Reese pats him on the back. “We got one more,” he calls out to Jake, walking away so the two of them can get a headcount together.

They all decide to carpool, which works out well since they already carpooled to the rink but not all the guys that came out to play want to go out to eat so everyone gets shuffled around. They almost have an odd man out until Olli offers to take someone in his car with Conor. Reeser looks like he wants to offer to go with them but he’s already one of the drivers so he can’t.

“You coming?” Dumo asks, holding his trunk open. If not for the fact that Dumo has an SUV, Justin wouldn’t know what they would’ve done with all their equipment and a full car.

“Maybe I’ll go with Olli and Conor so Juuso can go with you guys,” Justin offers. As much as he doesn’t want to sit awkwardly in a car with Olli and Conor alone, it’s probably less awkward and Juuso sitting in a car with people he’s never met before.

“That’s alright,” Olli cuts in, “we’re good.” Standing beside him, Juuso has the car door open and one leg inside.

Before now, Justin hadn’t thought much about the new transfer student.

Right now, he might be staring a little.

“Great!” Justin says over enthusiastically. He puts on a smile and goes to walk around Dumo’s car to the passenger side.

Dumo looks at Justin like he has two heads. “You okay?”

“I’m just peachy,” Justin replies.

Instead of driving off, Dumo reaches over to hold Justin’s face in both his hands. “Your concussion is making you weird, dude.”

Justin swats his friend’s hands away. “I’m not concussed anymore.”

“Okay,” Dumo says, unconvinced.

 

**

 

They probably take up half of the Applebees when they’re all seated. Not all of them fit at the same table and some of the guys actually volunteer to sit elsewhere, presumably to get away from Assistant Coach Sully who brought his niece and kids.

Justin is thankful to be sitting at the other end of the table when Conor and Jordan Sullivan start to get along. He doesn’t think Sully will actually pop a blood vessel, but it’s hard to tell.

So maybe just a little part of him wishes he was closer for eavesdropping purposes.

It’s much better than paying attention to the conversation Jusso and Olli are having in front of him. At the very least, the bulk of their conversation is mostly in English since Olli did try involving Justin before Juuso started to talk about his hometown.

Dumo has long abandoned him to sit at the bar so he can drink freely. He’s not the type to go overboard and, besides, Justin never ordered his beer. Caffeine became the priority over alcohol.

“Excuse me,” the server cuts in, holding Justin’s meal right under his nose.

Startled, Justin sits back in his chair abnormally straight. “Sorry,” he apologizes with a light laugh.

“No problem,” the server says, setting the plate down, moving onto the next person.

“Looks good,” Olli comments.

Justin looks down. All he ordered was a burger.

“Thanks,” Justin says almost like a question. Olli smiles. “Still waiting on your food?” he asks although the answer is obvious. Olli has no food.

“Yep,” Olli says without any snark whereas any of the other guys would’ve chirped him. There’s a pause before Olli asks, “You okay?”

It’s belated but also Justin hasn’t exactly been comfortable since the game and they haven’t exactly had time to chat either. The pain pill is starting to kick in though.

“Been better,” Justin admits. He almost reaches for his food but he feels bad eating when Olli doesn’t have his food yet. “That wasn’t the first time someone came at me,” he says casually.

Olli doesn’t take the news very well. “It was illegal.”

“Preaching to the choir,” Justin says.

“Someone should’ve taught that guy a lesson,” Olli says.

Jamie never got the chance to fight #43. He got close but a whistle was always blown before Jamie could get too close. Justin was disappointed to say the least.

“Maybe next time,” Justin shrugs. They’ll play the other team again and before the refs get onto him, Justin might just have to come out onto the ice strong.

“I bet you’ll win,” Olli says. Juuso looks somewhat surprised but when Olli looks at him for an agreement, the Fin nods.

Justin makes an awkward face, a mixture between thankful and surprised. He uses his burger as an excuse to not say anything else. Juuso doesn’t have his food but Olli does so Justin doesn’t feel as bad.

From behind he feels one of his teammates put his arm on the back of Justin’s chair. That sets off a foul scent at their end of the table.

Their server has come back with Juuso’s food. She leans into him to put the food in front of him. She’s pretty, Justin thinks. Olli must not care for her though, because he’s looking at her unhappily. Justin feels sad about it but he knocks his feet into Olli’s underneath the table all the same.

The alpha’s gaze snaps to him. He looks so serious until their eyes meet. Olli softens slightly.

“Taste good?” he asks Justin.

Justin nods as he takes another bite of his burger. Olli’s scent has changed to something happier so Justin has to do something so he doesn’t blurt out that he likes when Olli smells like that more. That would be inappropriate. But for an extra effect, Justin moans around his food.

Olli turns a tad red, Justin isn’t sure why.

 

**

 

Even though they all live near the school they’d rather not drive around in circles. So, passengers get shuffled a second time around when everyone realizes that everyone lives in different directions.

Justin stays with Olli and because they live in the same complex, once everyone else is dropped off, it’s just the two of them.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Olli asks as they stand in front of his trunk. He didn’t have to get out of the car with Justin but here they are at a standstill not completely sure what to say to each other.

“Sure,” Justin says, then cringes. “I mean, yeah.”

“You thinking about skipping?” Olli teases. They’re starting to sit together a bit more often now. Olli knows that Justin doesn’t skip.

“No, I wish,” Justin says jokingly. He laughs awkwardly. That wasn’t what he meant to say. To fill in the silence, Justin fakes a cough. “See you,” he tacks on. He’s a little bit embarrassed but it’s not the first time he’s ever put his foot in his mouth around Olli.

Nat is in the living room with her feet in Jake’s lap as he quizzes her with flashcards. Justin isn’t sure how Jake beat him home. Nat couldn’t come to the game at all because she had a SGA meeting to run and a test to study for after.

“Hey,” she greets softly.

“Hey,” Justin says back. Carelessly, he drops his stuff onto the floor and flops onto the couch stomach down. His feet hang off the end and it’s not the most comfortable but he’s tired and he’s replaying his lame _see you_ to Olli over and over in his head.

“Heard you almost got into a fight tonight,” Nat says. Justin mumbles a confirmation into the couch cushions. “You’re gonna suffocate yourself, dude. I thought we agreed no dying in the apartment. I don’t wanna get framed for your murder.” She laughs and throws a couch pillow at Justin. It bounces off his back.

“That asshole from Georgetown isn’t still bothering you, is it?” Jake asks, concerned. “He’s a dumbass if he thinks secondary gender has anything to do with hockey skill. You have more talent in your big toe than he does in his entire body.”

As to not suffocate himself, Justin moves his face so his cheek is digging into the couch and he can look at the pair on the couch at the same time. “That’s not it.”

“You wanna talk about it?” Nat asks.

Justin smiles weakly. He really likes her. She’s sweet. They probably wouldn’t be as close as they are if Jake didn’t start dating her. It’s about time, too. Justin was getting a bit tired of the nosy questions at practice about his roommates from Jake. He doesn’t like to take sole credit for things often but he totally got them together.

He didn’t plan on it, and he certainly wasn’t trying to hook his captain up. It just happened. Gradually, and subtle. Justin barely even noticed until Jake started coming around to see Nat instead of him. He was too caught up thinking about other things.

“I’m okay,” Justin lies.

Jake tilts his head, unconvinced. “You sure?”

“I’m just tired,” Justin says, and that’s the truth. He feels hormonal, like he could eat a whole bag of chips by himself and still want more even though he’s pretty sure he’s not meant to have another heat due anytime soon. It feels like just week he had it.

Heaving himself off the couch, he drags his feet into the kitchen. A niggling voice in the back of his mind tells him to take a shower.

“You’re _still_ hungry?” Jake asks with a laugh.

Justin turns, his head away from where it was buried in the fridge. His stomach does feel full but he can’t help the craving he’s having. Desperately, he wants chocolate.

“I guess I shouldn’t,” he admits dejectedly.

Lightly, Nat admonishes her boyfriend with a thump against the chest.

Justin sighs. He grabs a Gatorade from the fridge and closes it. “I’m going to bed. Goodnight, guys.”

“G’night,” they say together.

 

**

 

In the morning, Justin lays in bed staring at pictures posted on the team’s Facebook page for fifteen minutes before deciding he should get up. Two of them have Conor and Olli in the background while Jamie stands over Justin while holding the Georgetown player by the collar of his jersey. There’s something in Olli’s expression that Justin finds himself trying to study.

Olli’s mad, as opposed to the way Conor looks excited by the hit.

The aches and creakyness of his muscles make Justin groan as he finally rolls out of bed. His bedhead is a mess and there’s a gross taste in his mouth.

Idlying scrolling through the rest of Facebook, he brushes his teeth. It’s extremely tempting to back to bed after. Instead, he takes an Advil and goes to his closet next to get dressed. He puts on a pair of gray sweatpants—a nice pair, too look like he’s put some kind of effort into dressing himself—and a school branded t-shirt on. The color has faded but it’s comfortable and surprisingly soft considering Justin thinks he got it for free at a school event.

Nobody is in the kitchen so Justin takes up as much as the kitchen as he wants while he makes himself scrambled eggs. He throws mini sausages and bacon onto a small pan as an afterthought when his stomach grumbles.

“Making me breakfast, that’s so sweet,” Jake jokes, coming out of Nat’s room wearing the same clothes from the night before and his backpack over his shoulder.

“Uh, you wish,” Justin replies, shaking his head. He slides his food onto a plate and puts the pans in the sink with some soapy water to soak.

Nat follows her boyfriend, stopping at the other side of the counter. She puts both her arms onto the counter and smiles at Justin. “You look better this morning,” she comments.

“I feel better,” Justin admits.

“Good,” she says.

Justin tries to not pay too much attention to the both of them as they say their goodbyes at the door. Politely, they keep things short but Justin is already taking his breakfast back to his room to be alone.

Waiting for him on his phone is a message he nearly missed.

 **Olli** : _feeling ok today?_

Justin finishes his breakfast before answering. He needs time to think about how to answer that.

 

**

 

The alpha is back and sitting in Olli’s seat when Justin gets to class. It’s just a seat though, or so Justin tells himself, as he goes into his usual aisle to claim his seat. Olli will just have to deal with sitting on his left side instead of his right for once. It’s not a big deal.

The alpha, uncaring of how Justin is keeping his headphones distinctly so they don’t have to talk, says something to Justin that he can’t hear. He still smells as bad as he did the first time he sat next to Justin so Justin tries his best to ignore him, pretending to not hear him even though he turned his music down low. The alpha just doesn’t take the hint.

Obnoxiously, he waves his hand under Justin’s face to really get his attention. _That_ as much as Justin wishes he could pretend he didn’t see, he can’t ignore.

Justin pauses his music, keeping his headphones in, and just looks at the guy.

“I’m Jon,” the guy introduces.

Justin nods. He really doesn’t want to give his name.

“What’s your name?” Jon continues.

Justin tries to keep his expression neutral. He doesn’t want to smile and give the alpha any ideas but he doesn’t want to come off as rude either. “Justin,” he replies shortly.

“Did you happen to get the notes Monday?” Jon asks.

Mears posts all the Powerpoints online and spends most of the class reading straight from them with small adlibs of additional information. There was nothing to miss.

“The notes are online,” Justin answers unhelpfully. Quickly, he glances behind them to see if Olli is coming. Or Conor or Reeser. Literally anyone who can save him from this conversation.

“Oh,” Jon says. “You know, I was thinking of starting a Group Me if you wanna join.”

They’re nearly at the halfway point of the semester. Justin is pretty sure there’s already a group for the class. He thought about joining it but he’s friends with the TA’s. He doesn’t have to. They’re always a text message away if he needs them. Well, maybe not Conor, but he definitely knows Reeser and Olli well enough to text them if he has any problems.

“No thanks, I’m good,” Justin says. To signify to Jon that he’s done with their conversation, Justin turns his attention to his phone. He’ll play Farmville for the next ten minutes and hope that Jon leaves him alone.

Jon is as persistent as he is inattentive to class. “So, what year are you? I’m a senior.”

Justin bites his tongue so he doesn’t say something like _I’m not talking to you_ or _please stop talking to me_. His lifeline has almost reached him though.

Olli comes bounding down the aisle fast despite being early. Justin catches him first by scent, turning around again to see him. Just the sight of him has relief washing over him. On his own, Olli welcomes himself into their aisle and plants himself on Justin’s left. He just barely has his backpack off and he throws his arm over the back of Justin’s chair.

“Am I late?” he asks despite clearly being early.

Justin doesn’t want to make fun of Olli when the alpha is clearly saving him right now. “Nope,” he settles for instead.

“Good,” Olli says. Slowly, he drags his arm away, having his hand touch Justin shoulder to shoulder. He just misses the way it makes a shiver go through Justin’s entire body. “You ready for the midterm?” Olli asks as he opens his bag to get his laptop out.

“As ready as I can be,” Justin responds lightly. It’s the first test of the semester from Mears—test one of two—so the only thing that prevents him from getting too anxious about it is the fact that he can take it at home with all his notes out. If he’s lucky he’ll get some of the questions from his weekly quizzes on the midterm.

“You’ll do fine,” Olli says. “Most people do.”

“You guys doing another review for it?”

Olli types in his password and his computer unlocks to show a paper that he must’ve been working on before coming to class. “Yeah. I gotta talk to Zar to see when it is, though. I imagine we’ll have it Friday since the exam is next Wednesday. We might be able to squeeze in a second one on Monday, too, if we can get a room for it. You thinking about going?”

“Probably,” he answers.

“Awesome.” Olli smiles. Very minutely, Justin thinks Olli might have dimples. “It’ll be great to have you there.”

 

**

 

Really, Justin should’ve known that the amount of food he’s been eating and the fact that just the _thought_ of missing his dog sent him into tears in the middle of pharmacology should’ve been a sign that something was up with his hormones.

It isn’t until Army takes one smell of him and sends him back into the locker room that he thinks that there might be a problem.

“You’re completely off suppressants now?” Army checks. He has the team doctor with him, too. Shit.

Justin nods. “Like, last month.”

The guys’ cycle isn’t public knowledge but the important staff on the team all know in case of emergencies. There seems to be an emergency.

“He smells like he’s in heat now, doesn’t he?” Army asks Vyas as if Justin isn’t standing right in front of them.

Vyas takes an obnoxious whiff of air. “It does,” he agrees. “But that seems to be the only symptoms Justin is displaying. I’ll have to give him a full physical to better understand what the problem is.”

“Please, do,” Army says, upset.

Justin shifts from foot to foot. “Am I not allowed to play now?”

“Not until we can figure out what’s going on,” Army confirms. “We can’t have a player going through their cycle on the ice. That’s dangerous. I’m sorry, Justin.”

“I understand,” Justin sighs out.

Vyas has him strip down in another, private room, giving him a checkup Justin’s been through dozens of times before. He doesn’t seem to have any other ideas on why Justin’s scent has changed from a purely physical standpoint.

“We might have to run some tests,” Vyas tells him. He writes on his clipboard and looks back to Justin. “I noticed that your scent is slightly different than it was before. Have you recently mated with anyone?”

Justin almost chokes on his own spit. “What? No!” he says defensively. Then quieter, “No. There’s Geno but I haven’t seen him since last month.”

“I only ask because I have to,” Vyas tells Justin as he notes that down. He folds his hands on top of the clipboard. “Is there any other alphas that you’ve been spending a substantial amount of time with lately? Anyone new, not from the team?”

 _Just Olli_.

“Just Olli,” Justin admits hesitantly.

Vyas’s hands remain still, however, he does roll closer on the stool that he’s sitting on. “And is Olli an alpha that you’ve had relations with?”

“No,” Justin says quietly, hating how it sounds. He shouldn’t be so upset over it when Olli doesn’t even know there’s a crush to begin with.

“Well,” Vyas says, keeping himself lower than Justin on purpose. “Until I can get more information, I believe what’s happening right now is that your body is going into a preheat state. This is likely due to the fact that it _smells_ like Olli may have established a claim on you. Meaning, he placed his scent on you to ward off any other potential suitors. Or your body may be recognizing Olli as a potential mate and is beginning an early heat as a way to … entice your alpha into mating.”

A feeling of dread settles into Justin’s stomach.

“Don’t worry,” Vyas is quick to add. “You’re certainly not the first pair this has ever happened to. There’s been many cases of alpha and omega pairs forming potential bonds without being aware of it.”

“Will I have to go back on suppressants?” Justin asks.

Vyas rubs his neck, rolling away to put his clipboard on the counter. “Not unless you want to. You could always allow the heat to run its course. Your heat will likely be rougher than usual due to the fact that your body is expecting a specific heat partner, but the long term effects will wear off once your instincts come to realize that you won’t be mating.”

Justin nods slowly, drinking in the information at the pace of dripping molasses. “Should I tell Olli?”

“I would recommend you do,” Vyas says honestly.

Justin swallows thickly. He thought Vyas would say that.

Army allows him to go home from practice early. It’s not like he would be much help on the ice anyway.

He doesn’t go home though. He drives onto campus to sulk where he won’t get his stink all over the apartment for days. Dr. Vyas didn’t seem too concerned with Justin doing everyday things.

Sitting grumpily on the floor of an empty hallway of the science building with a smoothie to comfort his thoughts, Justin tries to call to move his appointment with Geno before he remembers that Geno told him he was going to take time off. He calls anyway and a man named Sergei tells him that he can arrange an appointment with a new alpha on staff named Derick instead.

All of Geno’s appointments seem to be forwarded to Derick it seems.

“Will he be back?” Justin asks out of curiosity.

Sergei sighs on the other line. “Who knows with Zhenya?”

Justin isn’t sure who Zhenya is exactly, but he can assume it’s Geno. It’s no nickname that Justin has ever used for Geno before. “Can you let me know if he does?” Justin asks still.

“Sure, kid,” Sergei replies patiently.

Justin hangs up the phone with a strange feeling.

He types out a few different messages to send to Olli, all about the predicament they’re in but none of them make him happy. A simple _we need to talk_ sounds good but doesn’t feel right. He doesn’t want to blow this up bigger than it actually is only to be let down when Olli tells him that he never can see Justin like that.

It occurs to Justin that part of the reason why the hallway remains so empty is because of him when a professor comes out of her lecture hall and walks straight to him. She crouches slightly to be more on his level and asks him gently in a southern accent, “You alright, hun?”

Justin thinks about all the snacks he’s going to buy at CVS on the way home and his lip might wobble slightly.

“I’ve been better,” Justin admits since he can’t bring himself to lie to a professor outright even though he doesn’t know her. Especially since she’s going out of her way to approach him.

The professor pats his knee. “Want me to call your alpha?” she offers.

Justin pictures Olli. He feels a certain bitterness that Olli and alpha are exclusive things. Olli might be his friend, but he’s certainly not Justin’s alpha.

“No thank you,” he says, instead of just telling the professor that he doesn’t have an alpha at all. He hadn’t planned on going anywhere else but he feels strange strange sitting in the hallway now. “I was on my way out, actually.”

The professor stands to full height as Justin gets up. “Okay,” she says, sounding like she doesn’t believe him.

There’s probably a number of other places where he can hide on campus. Going home means it’s closer to tomorrow and tomorrow means having to see Olli in person. Justin wanders across campus slowly, taking cutting through buildings to make his walk back to his car longer. Despite not listening to music, he doesn’t hear much of anything around him. It’s just all white noise.

A hand stops him from walking much further by curling around his elbow.

Justin blinks owlishly, turning to see Olli standing there.

“Are you okay?” Olli asks. Even he looks a bit confused as to how he got here.

“I think so,” Justin answers. He looks down at Olli’s hand that hasn’t moved. “Are _you_ okay?”

“Yeah,” Olli says. Suddenly, he pulls his hand away. “I just, uh, felt like I had to find you.”

Justin flushes. “You found me,” he tries to joke. Now is a good a time as any to rip the bandaid off. “I have to tell you something.” Olli looks wary. “My preheat was triggered early.”

“Okay,” Olli replies, dragging the syllables out. “Do you need me to let Mears know that you’ll need an extension on the exam due date?”

“No,” Justin says, then, “well, probably but that’s not it. I’m going into heat because—well, did you put a claim on me?” Suddenly, Justin isn’t sure what to do with his hands. He still has his misery smoothie to be mindful of. One hand gets shoved deep into his pocket and the other hands limply at his side. He poses himself so that if Olli rejects him, he can make a quick getaway.

“I didn’t—I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Olli says unsurprisingly to Justin.

“It’s fine, though. Dr. Vyas says that it’ll go away in time,” Justin says, trying to play the situation off as casual.

Olli doesn’t want to play it casual. “It doesn’t sound _fine_. What do we do in the meantime? How did this even happen in the first place?”

“Dr. Vyas says it’s probably because you put a claim on me and I must have accepted.” Justin scuffs his feet on the sidewalk. That’s not exactly what the doctor said but it’s like a combination of both things. He’s just trying to condense things for the alpha.

“I wouldn’t have done that. I mean, I wouldn’t do that to you on purpose without you knowing,” Olli says. Stressed, he runs his fingers through his short hair. “How long does it take for a claim to go away?”

“I … don’t know,” Justin says. He should’ve asked but he was so focused on the idea of the claim itself that when Dr. Vyas asked him if he had any questions, he couldn’t separate his thoughts coherently.

“Is there anything I can do in the meantime?” Olli asks. He looks as though he’s about to bolt at any moment. That makes two of them.

Justin thinks about all the things he wants to say to Olli. Most of them are things he can’t ask of the alpha. Still, there’s one that he can’t help but ask. “Could you spend my heat with me?”

Olli shakes his head before he says anything. Justin’s heart drops into his stomach. “I can’t. It wouldn’t be right. Justin, I’m your TA. It wouldn’t be appropriate.”

“You’re right. I mean—I had to ask, in case, you know? I get it. I wouldn’t put you in that position. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked at all, actually,” Justin says all in a rush. He feels guilty for putting the idea out there and he can’t backtrack enough. “I should probably go. Dr. Vyas wants me to rest,” he lies for no reason other than to get out of the situation. “I’ll see you tomorrow. In class. Maybe.”

“Justin, wait,” Olli says but Justin isn’t listening.

In the safety of his car, Justin rests his forehead against his hands where he has them gripping the the steering wheel so tight his knuckles are white. His heart is pounding and he can’t help but replay the image of Olli closing off to him.

They aren’t the closest but Justin thought that they could be friends after the semester ends. Olli wouldn’t be the person who Justin sees for class and maybe at some hockey games and that’s it. Justin, of course, wouldn’t want to trap Olli in a compromising position but now there’s a part of him that fears they’ll revert to being strangers again.

Justin doesn’t want that.

He wants Olli.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A character from chapter 1 was named Jordan but I changed it to Nat. She was super minor so it doesn't really change much of the story.
> 
> Also, nobody's ages are correct. Everyone is at least 20.


	3. Chapter 3

**FINAL.**

Derick is a nice alpha but he isn’t Geno and he _definitely_ isn’t Olli. Justin’s head just isn’t in the right place. He feels bad about it, thinking about Olli when Derick is helping him. Although, he’s technically paying Derick so he tries not to beat himself up too much about it. He doesn’t hide his emotions well when he’s in heat and it’s not right for him to be like this around Derick, who doesn’t even understand the whole situation.

In the end, Derick must think that he did a terrible job with Justin because he apologizes and he tries to make up for something that’s not his fault by trying to smother Justin with cuddles after it’s all over. Justin allows himself to wallow in pity for a short while before shaking it off.

“I’m okay,” he tells Derick, untangling all their limbs.

“Are you sure? I don’t have to leave yet if you still need me,” the alpha offers.

Justin misses Olli. He misses Geno.

“That’s okay. I think I’m going to go home and sleep some more,” Justin says.

Derick sits up in bed, his hair mussed with only a blanket thrown across his lap to cover him modestly. Justin looks over the alpha appreciatively. Inwardly, Justin curses his inability to enjoy what he just had.

“You can stay and I can go if you want to sleep,” Derick rephrases. Justin doesn’t think that Derick can offer him the room like that but the owner doesn’t seem like the type of person to just throw an omega out on the street. There’s a higher chance of Justin being footed with an extra charge on his bill than anything else.

“No, I think I’d rather be in my own bed.” Justin drags himself off the bed. He knows it’s smarter to shower here than wait to get home but he really wants to be in his own space right now where everything smells like _his_. Dumo will just have to deal with his car being stinked up.

Justin, at least, manages to pull on a fresh set of clothes. Clean and smelling of the detergent he and Nat started buying together. He hopes that nobody else will be home when he gets back. Or at least, that none of them come out of their rooms to see how things went.

His heat was hell, just like Dr. Vyas predicted. It wasn’t anything Derick couldn’t have handled alone but Justin doesn’t like that feeling. He doesn’t like feeling incomplete and empty. He doesn’t like that he caused Derick extra trouble even though the alpha came into their appointment knowing the predicament Justin got himself into. The only redeemable thing Justin can remember from the peak of it all was that he managed to not call out Olli’s name at the peak of it all.

There’s a good chance that Justin would’ve died right on the spot out of embarrassment if that happened.

Dumo very wisely leaves the windows rolled down when Justin gets to the car. He takes one side glance at him, clearly contemplating whether it’s wise to ask how things went. He must decide that it’s better to not talk about things went right away with how he launches into a recap of an episode to a show that Justin doesn’t watch.

“And they just ended the episode like that. Crazy, right? Like, what a wild way to leave viewers hanging,” Dumo exaggerates.

Justin tips his head back against the headrest, his eyes closed. Tiredly, he smiles. “Thanks,” he tells Dumo.

“For what?”

“Just being you,” Justin replies. He opens his eyes to see his friend staring at him. “And don’t ask if it’s my concussion again. You know it’s not. You’ll just ruin the moment.”

Dumo stays quiet for a moment, his eyes flitting back and forth between Justin and the road. Eventually, he reaches over to punch Justin in the shoulder. “I think you did that yourself.” He cruises to a stop behind a light. Justin thinks he’s done and they’ll go back to listening to the music but Dumo lowers the sound. “Whatever happened, you can tell me. I know coach is keeping something from us. If something went down, like, I’m all ears. The guys think you’re gonna leave the team.”

Justin snaps his attention from the window to Dumo’s face. “What?”

“Well, you were out for the concussion, then your heat, and now this. Some guys might think that you’re trying to let us down easy,” Dumo says.

“Who?”

“It’s just some rumors. Who doesn’t really matter.”

“Tell me,” Justin insists. He bets it’s some of the new guys. They probably want his roster spot. Army has been trying to make their team deeper and with the way Justin has been performing, they must think that they’ll be able to come in and replace him.

“Just don’t worry about it, man. Didn’t Vyas tell you you needed to rest or something?” Dumo asks evasively.

Justin grumbles. Vyas may have implied that rest would be good for him. That, and time apart from Olli, which Justin has been debating telling Olli. If anything, the doctor already told him because he hasn’t gotten a message from Olli since they saw each other last. Justin has been skipping Mears’s class and getting updates he missed from Reeser.

There was a text message sent to Olli at some point and frankly, Justin is afraid to check if he got an answer. Their text chat has been muted but maybe if Nat bought the good ice cream to help him wallow through his angst, he might ask her to check for him.

Dumo pulls into a spot right in front of Justin’s building and parks. “I’ll walk you up,” he says with uncertainty in case Justin will tell him not to.

Justin isn’t in the mood to argue so he allows Dumo to walk him up. The alpha is being strange and Justin will worry about it later. For now, he just wants to crawl in bed and stay there for a few hours. Maybe the whole night.

Maybe he’ll rewatch some of The Office or Scrubs. Anything to just take his mind off things. He has homework that he’s behind on doing that he can probably get a doctor’s note for when he inevitably turns it in late. They’re getting to the end of the semester though where professors are surprisingly lenient. Although, that might have to do with the fact that the professors are getting as tired as the students in the final homestretch of the semester.

They get to the door with an awkward feeling lingering in the air.

“Thanks for getting me,” Justin says.

Dumo shifts foot to foot. “No problem. Call me if you need anything.”

“Thanks, mom,” Justin says sarcastically. Just being this close to home allows the tension to leave his shoulders. “I’ll probably feel better tomorrow.”

Justin quickly goes into the kitchen to grab a Gatorade and a bag of pretzels before hurrying off to his bedroom.

Even though he usually don’t do baths, he runs the water for one anyway. He’ll give himself a good soak until he’s all pruny and he’ll eat his snacks and watch some TV on his laptop until the motivation to shower finally comes over him.

 

**

 

There’s really nothing Justin dreads more than going back to class. He can’t rely on Reeser forever and Dr. Vyas thinks that Olli’s claim has weakened a little.

“Probably due to spending one of your heats with another alpha,” Vyas told him. “Hopefully, in another month or so the claim will be gone altogether. Just be careful.”

Justin’s been more than that. Strangely, Justin hopes that Olli is avoiding him as much as he’s avoiding Olli just because that means they’re even on both sides. As much as he doesn’t want to revert back to being strangers, he doesn’t like the idea of the accidental claim lingering between them. It’ll make things awkward and Justin knows himself well enough to realize that it’ll be all he’ll be able to think about when they’re together.

The what ifs will haunt him more than not being friends at all.

Justin doesn’t want to come off as a coward so he goes to sit in his regular seat in Mears’s class. There’s a pretty good chance that Olli won’t sit with him.

He keeps his eyes on his phone and his head down.

Someone in the row ahead of him clear his throat. They do it again so Justin peeks up through his lashes to see who it is.

“Hey,” Olli says hesitantly. “Nobody’s heard from you all week. You been doing okay?”

Justin feels his heart throb. “Better than yesterday,” he says, trying to be cheerful.

“That’s great to hear,” Olli says. He moves to get up but then stops, as if he means to say something else. Justin isn’t looking anymore.

The lecture is unable to keep his attention for long.

Reeser keeps looking at him throughout the beginning of the lecture. Justin knows because he’s doing a bad job at not looking at Olli. The two TA’s whisper to each other and then Reeser will turn around for a split second.

Tomorrow Justin will try to ask Dumo if he anything has been said about him and Olli.

Justin figures he may as well treat himself for now. Bento is only a short distance away and they have free WiFi so at least he can try to do some homework while he avoids his problems.

For a Japanese place, they play a surprising amount of k-pop music while he sits and waits for his food. He’s hungrier than he realized. Lately he’s had either two modes of eating. Justin either consumes everything or sight or doesn’t want to touch food at all. Today’s problem is more of the former.

Someone slides into the seat next to him at the bar.

“Excuse me,” the guy says. Justin looks. “Sorry I just—can you pass the soy sauce?”

“Oh, sure, yeah,” Justin stutters. At first he leans back on his stool to let the stranger lean across him then belatedly decides on passing the soy sauce on instead.

The guy gives a good natured half-laugh. “Thanks,” he says, as the soy is passed to him.

Justin gives the guy a friendly smile.

On the table, his phone starts to buzz. His meal feels less pleasant to eat when he looks to see Dr. Vyas’s name on the screen. He considers letting it go to voicemail but for as persistent as Vyas has been in keeping tabs on Justin’s condition, Justin has to admit that he has felt better with the doctor’s help.

Keeping a hushed tone, he answers the phone.

“Hey, Dr. Vyas,” he says.

“Justin, how’ve you been doing?”

“I’ve been alright. I went to class today.”

Dr. Vyas makes a pleased sound. “That’s good progress. Next practice I was hoping that you could come in for a blood test.”

“Sure.” Justin tries not to sigh too close to the phone.

“Be sure to fast before your test,” Dr. Vyas adds. “I’ll see you at ten.”

“See you at ten,” Justin echos.

Justin looks down at his food. He should’ve ordered himself boba too.

 

**

 

There’s an apartment of alphas that live underneath Justin’s unit. Sometimes they pass each other at night when Justin comes home late from a game. They like to smoke pot and drink beer on their porch when the weather is nice out. Justin knows when they’re out there when the smell drifts in through his open bedroom window.

Justin never stops to talk to them, even though one time, they went around knocking on doors asking all the neighbors if they wanted to join in on their party. Justin and his roommates declined but some people must have accepted the offer because the music coming from downstairs lasted past midnight.

They’re drinking on the stairwell, tossing a ball back and forth when Justin gets home, exhausted from the day. The one sitting on the stairs moves over but another one of them stops Justin.

“Hey, wanna drink?” he offers.

Justin pauses. He _does_ but he’s not that cheap or lazy to take free booze from a stranger. He doesn’t know what they did to it.

“No thanks,” Justin tries declining.

“You play hockey, don’t you?” another one of them asks.

“Yeah,” he says, trying to keep it vague. Justin could walk away and ignore them. He does go around them to start going up the stairs. He’s been feeling better but he isn’t sure that he’s ready to be social again. Eventually, he’ll let Dumo drag him out of his room to go to an event. Maybe he’ll go to another football game but without the part where he got drunk. That made him feel awful.

“We’re gonna catch the Pens game if you wanna join,” the same guy offers.

That sounds fun and it’s not like Justin has any other way—well, _legal_ —way of watching. He’s never had an issue with it before though.

They must realize that Justin is on the verge of accepting the offer with his hesitance. “You can invite your alpha,” one of them adds to get Justin fully on board.

It backfires.

“No thanks, actually,” Justin shakes his head. “I have a term paper to write.”

“That’s no fun,” one of them contributes.

Justin shrugs. “Unless one of you guys wanna write it.”

They fall silent.

Nat is in the kitchen cooking dinner when Justin walks in. Whatever it is, smells good and it makes Justin’s mouth water even though he had a late lunch. He almost walks to his room without saying hello to her but she turns around with a pot in her hand to put into the sink.

“Hey,” she greets. Putting the pot into the sink, she turns the water on to soak the pot.

“Hey,” he says in return. Justin throws his backpack onto the couch.

“You look tired,” Nat comments.

“It’s been a long week,” Justin admits.

Nat raises a brow. “It’s Wednesday.”

“Yeah,” Justin agrees.

Nat laughs, but not meanly. “Rough first week back?”

“I think I wanna sleep forever,” Justin says dramatically. He walks into the adjoining living room and lays down on the couch. His backpack takes up some space but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t bother moving it.

Nat plates her food and comes into the living room, sitting on the love seat with her feet up on the coffee table. “Wanna talk about it?” she asks through a mouthful of food.

“I saw Olli today.” He hasn’t told Nat everything but she probably knows most of it, especially if Jake has told her anything. Part of him hopes not, but part of him hopes she does because he’s not sure if he can explain it all from the beginning. His whole semester’s worth of pining after an alpha who didn’t want to follow through on his claim.

“Jake mentioned that. The Olli thing, I mean. He sounds like a real jerk.”

Justin groans. “He’s not. He’s really nice. I’m just stupid. Or we’re both stupid. He didn’t notice that he laid a claim on me and I didn’t either.” Absentmindedly, he spins his watch around on his wrist. He kind of feels like he’s talking to a shrink with the way he’s laying on the couch. Only, his shrink is free and she gives advice that most other professionals wouldn’t endorse.

“Maybe you guys are like soulmates,” she suggests dreamily. Justin pretends to make a gagging noise. “You don’t believe in soulmates?”

“I don’t know. Not really, I guess.” Justin knocks his feet together. As he looks down at his toes he can’t help but think that this isn’t his most flattering angle. “I haven’t really thought about it, actually. I just figured that I’d find someone one day. I can barely deal with myself. How am I supposed to deal with another person?”

“That’s what a partner is for. You guys can deal with stuff together,” Nat says.

Justin pretends to gag again, this time pointing his finger down his throat for emphasis. “It’s a good thing that being Jake hasn’t idealized your view of romance.”

“Oh shut up,” she teases. Then softer, Nat adds, “You’ll find someone. Olli is stupid for turning you down.”

“He was right though. It would be inappropriate,” Justin sighs.

“Only if you guys get caught.”

“Nat!”

“I’m just _saying_. I mean, if he doesn’t think you’re worth at least trying to do things on the DL, then he isn’t worth your time,” Nat shrugs casually.

“I don’t want a relationship on the DL. I want to be disgustingly sweet like you and Jake.”

“Awe, that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Nat jokes.

“If you tell Jake, I’ll have to kill you in your sleep though.”

“You know, all genders of the human species can show their emotions, right?”

Justin would throw the couch pillow at her if it wasn’t making his head comfortable. “I just wish it was easier. And the _timing_. Do you really think if Olli wasn’t my TA, he’d be interested?”

“A hundred thousand percent sure.”

“You’re laying it on pretty thick there,” Justin comments.

“Well, you’re underestimating your charms considerably. I don’t know what else to tell you.” Feeling she’s made her case, Nat licks the remaining bits of food off her fork. “If you want, there’s a mixer on campus this Friday if you wanna go. I’ll be your wingman.”

“Don’t they throw those for freshmen?”

“ _And_ transfer students. I get that technically you’re not either of those but maybe you’ll find someone at least a little bit interesting. Or, hey maybe, you’ll be able to hook up with a hot chaperone.”

“I think my attraction to people in positions of authority is what got me into this mess.”

“Oh, please. Being put in charge of entering grades into a computer isn’t really authority. It’s not like they make any of the tests or quizzes. Grading things is probably the easiest part.” Nat sets her bowl onto the coffee table. “I’m serious about my offer, though. If you wanna go, just let me know.”

Justin contemplates which might be more painful: a mixer full of awkward freshman or just smothering himself right now. “Thanks. I will.”

Nat smiles encouragingly at her. “I’m the best wingman ever. Promise.”

 

**

 

“Maybe you _should_ go,” Dumo tells Justin.

The idea of going wasn’t something Justin wanted to advertise but he figured Dumo would tell him it was a terrible idea. He wasn’t expecting his friend to be all for it.

“If anything, you get a quick hookup with some freshman alpha and you graduate before they can realize how good they had it and you become the one that got away,” Dumo says.

“I don’t wanna have sex with a barely legal kid,” Justin says.

“That’s fair.” Dumo pauses to think, considering Justin’s options. “Maybe you can hook up with someone running the mixer.”

“That’s what Nat said.”

Dumo pats himself on the back. “Well, that’s because we’re both kind of geniuses. I knew I liked her from the very beginning.”

“Have you ever met her before for more than five minutes?” Justin rolls his eyes.

“Once. I think.”

Justin puts his backpack on and preps his duffle bag. “So you think I should tell her that I’ll go.”

The locker room is luckily empty. The rest of the team left as early possible to get a start on the long weekend. A big football game means the rest of the classes of the day are canceled. Most of them have classes late in the day so almost the entire team has off for the rest of the weekend. It’s just Dumo that’s taking his sweet time.

“Spread your wings, baby bird,” Dumo says. He stands and takes Justin’s face in his hands.

“I will punch you,” Justin warns as Dumo starts to squeeze his cheeks so he’s forced to make a fish face.

“Understood,” Dumo acknowledges. He pulls his hands back fast.

On the walk to the bus from practice, Justin texts Nat to see if she’s home. Justin will need a good nap before he’s ready for socialization but a lame mixer might just be what Justin needs in getting over the incident. His hopes for meeting someone long-term isn’t very high though. She responds almost immediately that she’s still down for the plan.

There’s no backing out now.

Justin locks himself away in his room to sleep. He should probably do the last of his online quizzes but he can’t bring himself to do it right now.

Tomorrow sounds like a good time to get stuff done.

He must fall asleep longer than intended since Nat knocks on his door until he opens it, sleepy and confused.

“You still wanna go?” she asks, unsure.

Justin tries to shake it off. “Yeah, I do. Just let me get dressed.”

“I like you hair,” Nat compliments, laughing. “You should keep it that way.”

“You think?” Justin asks. He reaches up to touch his hair. It’s definitely a mess.

He doesn’t spend much time on getting dressed. He throws on jeans that look nice. Dumo told him to buy them because they look stylish. The shirt Justin puts on is nothing special. He considers using cologne but he doesn’t want to alter his scent so he decides that he’s finished.

Nat drives. Justin offers first but she doesn’t really plan on mingling much. She’s going to the mixer for him, after all.

‘Does Jake know you’re doing this?”

Nat shrugs. Despite only coming as emotional support, she looks really nice. “Yeah, of course. He’s not, like, thrilled about it but it’s not a problem either. He actually offered to come along too but I figured it would be better if it was just us.”

Considering Jake and Dumo almost tried challenging a guy in Smoothie King because he looked at Justin predatorily, Nat probably made a good decision. But maybe.

“Maybe you should’ve let him come. Any alpha willing to go past Jake could be worth giving some time to,” Justin jokes.

“I can’t babysit both of you guys at once,” she says.

Justin almost feels offended until he sees her laughing into her hand. He wasn’t able to hide his indignation from reaching his face in time. “ _I’m_ the child? You can keep telling yourself that.”

At the door to the event, they get their hands stamped (barely) to mark their secondary gender. Most people can tell just from scent. The stamp seems like an extra step.

“I need a drink,” Nat announces immediately.

There’s no alcohol provided by the event runners, although Justin is sure that if someone really wanted to, they could sneak it in somehow. Hell, with the way Nat reaches into her purse, Justin almost asks her if she brought in a flask of her own stuff.

She didn’t. She just brings out a compact mirror to check her lipstick.

The rest of the party has already started, which Justin is thankful for. He didn’t really want to come in while everyone is standing around awkwardly waiting for the event to begin. There’s just enough people there to talk to. Most of them are omegas, which is fine. It’s good for breaking the nerves without having to worry too much about the pressure of making a match.

“He’s hot,” Nat whispers into Justin’s ear. Why she bothers, Justin doesn’t know, because she points out which alpha she’s talking about with her finger anyway. If boys were even 2% more observant, he could see how obvious Nat is being.

“He’s … okay,” Justin says. From afar he looks pretty tall, shorter than Justin maybe, with dark blonde hair.

“Gimmie some hints. What’re you looking for? What’s your type?” Nat pours herself another glass of lemonade to go with the brownies she’s making Justin hold for her.

Justin swirls the fruit punch in his cup.

He likes guys who are driven. Guys who are progressive thinking, especially in terms of omegas. Guys who like hockey. Guys who _play_ hockey. Smart and slightly witty guys. Guys who wear more than gym pants on a regular basis. Guys who are blonde and charming in a Chris Evans kind of way, but like, are actually human. A guy who wants kids one day, after they both get established in their fields.

Justin doesn’t have time to find all of that in the span of a three hour event though.

“I guess if he likes dogs, he can’t be that bad,” Justin shrugs. “Dogs and hockey.”

“Such high standards. I see now why you’ve been single,” Nat gasps.

“Okay,” Justin says, pushing her face away with his hand. “If I wanted someone to roast me the entire time, I would’ve brought Dumo.”

“Dumo isn’t nearly as cute as me.”

 _You’re probably right_ , Justin is about to say, just to tease her, but a group of three steps between them to get to the drinks they had previously been blocking.

“You want some?” one of them asks, holding a small travel size rum.

“I do,” Nat accepts, holding her drink out.

“I guess a little wouldn’t hurt,” Justin agrees.

The rum is cheap, obviously. It does the trick, making the punch at least better tasting.

“So which one is the friend that abandoned you guys?” the girl asks. She’s shorter than Justin and Nat and it looks like she put no effort in getting dressed. Justin can’t really blame her.

“Well, we came so _someone_ could at least try to meet someone but he hasn’t really done much of that so far,” Nat says, accusatory.

A member of their group is a beta. He looks Justin up and down. “You’re not really missing anything,” he says. Justin thinks his drinks smells more like alcohol than whatever type of juice it’s supposed to be. The guy takes a long drink and smacks his lips together. “Unless you really wanna go for an easy rebound. I bet that guy over there would be pretty easy,” he adds, pointing out someone far away in the crowd.

The guy is lanky and looking around the room nervously. His friends with him don’t seem to be helping him any. They’re a lot more comfortable than he is nor does it seem like they really hear him when he tries to add to their side conversation.

Justin would be okay with banging him if his face didn’t make him look like he’s 12.

“I’ll pass,” Justin decides.

“His loss,” the guy says.

Nat looks at Justin with a look of encouragement. Justin feels like he’s back playing peewee hockey while his mom yells words of encouragement at him from the other side of the glass. It was embarrassing then, it’s a bit embarrassing now.

“I’m Nat, by the way,” Nat cuts in, extending her hand to shake.

They all exchange names. The beta who brought the booze is Allie, the omega is Lisa, and the beta is Alexander but he’s quick to correct that he goes by Alex. All while looking at Justin.

 

**

 

Nat finds a way to get the girls to go with her to the bathroom so Justin is left alone with Alex.

On a normal day, Justin would probably think a guy like Alex is bland but with a little bit of alcohol, he’s alright. Justin can pretend that Alex is interesting.

Alex is a business major, loves soccer, and stands for omega rights because he just _loves_ omegas. Some of his omegas are best friends. Justin politely doesn’t roll his eyes or walk away yet. There’s something about Alex’s point of view that makes Justin wish Nat was still around for a way out. She doesn’t seem to be coming back anytime soon either. Justin just hopes that that’s the only red flag going up.

Justin is hoping that starting the conversation on a bad note won’t continue.

“You know,” Alex starts to suggest, “we could ditch the girls and get outta here.”

Justin laughs nervously. “This place isn’t so bad. We can stay.”

“I can be discrete,” Alex says much to Justin’s confusion.

“What?”

“I just mean. You here without your alpha so, if you wanted to fool around, I won’t tell anyone,” Alex expands. He pretends to keep his voice low and winks.

“I don’t have an alpha,” Justin is fast to correct.

“Then what’s the hold up?” Alex asks impatiently.

Justin takes a step back. He really thought Olli’s claim would have be nothing by now. He can’t understand why people still think he’s mated. “Because I’m not interested,” he says easily.

“Well maybe you should be more careful to not give that impression. Why go to one of these if you don’t plan on going home with someone?” Alex snaps.

“I don’t _have_ to,” Justin argues.

Luckily, the situation is salvaged by the girls who had been spying on them from afar with Nat leading the way. She steps between them, reaching out for Justin’s arm.

“Could you drive us home? I’m not feeling well,” she says despite looking exactly fine. There’s maybe only a little flush on her cheeks.

“Yeah! I’ll drive,” Justin replies, eager to get away.

“What a dick,” Nat decides once they’ve gotten far enough away. Justin holds her shoulders still so she can’t look behind them. Justin does agree though. Wholeheartedly. “I’m sorry that sucked,” she apologizes.

“You wouldn’t have known I would’ve met the biggest asshole at the whole event,” Justin says. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not, but, if we’re going to leave, I do actually have to pee this time. Do you mind waiting?” she asks.

Justin feels relieved just to get out of there. “Sure. I’m gonna wait outside.”

The cool air feels nice. His light jacket isn’t really enough to keep him warm but he doesn’t mind the slight shiver. It’s only when a breeze goes by that he actually feels cold. So long as his hands are warm in his pockets, he doesn’t mind if the rest of him is a chilly.

The campus is mostly empty. He sees some people walking around toward the parking garages. Hearing a louder group approaching, Justin turns around toward the building he just came out of to give the oncomers privacy. He’s not trying to look like a creep loitering late on campus.

“Justin?” someone asks. Justin cringes because he knows that voice. He’s been avoiding all things related to that voice. He’s never run into someone so many times before outside of class when he didn’t want to.

“Hey,” Justin greets hesitantly.

Olli is with friends that Justin doesn’t recognize. They don’t seem like his freshman pack either.

“What’re you doing on campus so late?”

Justin scratches the side of his head. He’s not sure if he wants to be honest. “I was at an event,” he answers vaguely.

“The mixer, right? I thought about going,” one of Olli’s friends butts in. Justin tries to keep a polite expression.

“How’d that go?” Olli asks.

“Oh, you know. About as well as these things normally go,” Justin jokes. He’s not really sure how these things normally go but from what he’s heard, his friends’ experiences are usually about as great as his was tonight so far.

“Can we, uh, talk, actually? In private.” Olli practically waves his friends away, stepping closer to Justin. Suddenly, Justin notices that they probably weren’t coming in his direction. Only passing through, and for some reason they stopped.

“Actually,” Nat cuts in, “we were on our way home. It’s getting late.”

It’s really not that late and it’s the weekend so, there isn’t really any big reason why they would be rushing home so soon.

“I won’t take long,” Olli promises.

“It’s fine, a few minutes shouldn’t hurt,” Justin says. Vyas has been lecturing him about closure in their last few checkups. At least if things go south, Justin can tell the doctor that he tried.

Olli leads Justin back into the student union. It seems like he wants to sit down with Justin but Justin doesn’t venture further than a few feet into the building.

“If I talk, will you listen?” Olli asks. Justin would think the accusation is unfair but he did run away from Olli when this mess started.

“Sure.”

“I knew I laid the claim. But before you get mad, I didn’t realize I did it until after!” Olli says.

Justin feels his body snap to attention. “You knew, and you didn’t tell me? What’s wrong with you? I went into heat at practice. What if I was in the middle of the game or on campus? I could’ve been ready!”

“I really didn’t know until later. I promise! When you got hurt at that game, I think that’s when my instincts decided to lay a claim. Zach told me to be careful and I thought I was,” Olli apologizes. He even ducks his head in submission.

“Well, what now? You didn’t want to spend my heat with me and the semester’s still not over. What's changed?” Justin is pretty sure that Olli’s answer is nothing. They still have Thanksgiving and finals to get through and by the time they come back for the spring after Christmas, Justin doesn’t want a second disappointment when Olli decides he’s not interested anymore.

“Let me court you properly and when I’m not your TA anymore, if you’ve forgiven me, we can start dating.”

Tears form in Justin’s eyes but he doesn’t want to cry. Nat might kick his ass but Justin still says yes.

They don’t talk about it much on the way home. Justin is still digesting all of it.

 

**

 

“Oh, young love,” Dumo says dreamily, stroking Justin’s hair. “But,” he says, turning serious, “if he hurts you, I want first dibs on punching him in the face.”

“That’s my favorite part,” Justin admits.

He won a bet at practice so Jamie had to take his skates off and Dumo owes him a massage he’s avoiding doing.

“An even better reason why his face should be destroyed. Then you won’t be tempted to take him back a third time.”

“We were never together the first time,” Justin corrects. Dumo rolls his eyes. “What? We weren’t!”

“Sure you guys didn’t think so but everyone else did,” Dumo says.

Justin pushes Dumo over. “That’s enough outta you. You owe me a massage.”

“Can I interrupt?” Olli asks, poking his head into the locker room. Zach must’ve let him in.

“Mm,” Justin moans pleasantly as Dumo knead the tension out of shoulders. “Sure.”

“You guys got a date?” Dumo asks.

“Uh huh,” Justin says. Then he points Dumo lower. “My back really hurts. Make sure you get around my waist too.”

Dumo sticks his tongue at out Justin because he can’t see. “Where’re you guys going?”

Olli smiles. “Somewhere good. It’s kind of a surprise though.”

Justin smiles back. “Sounds great. I love surprises.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In time, I'm thinking of adding an extra chapter with more scenes of Justin and Olli getting to know each other. Since I was originally aiming for a 15k fic and I went over that, I think I was almost limiting myself on the word count. Rather than go back and change stuff on everyone, in the future, there just might be a fourth chapter added.
> 
> If you want to stay updated, you can follow my tumblr @sinkpages. I have a writing progress tag there.
> 
> (Proofread but will be proofread again for any missed typos.)


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